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Recipe for American Greek Salad

I'd never get tired of American Greek Salad for a meatless lunch or dinner!

(Republished with new photos and updated recipe, November 2011.) Here in the U.S. we're just about to head into what can be the most indulgent food week of the entire year. Although I try to encourage healthier holiday eating with my Low-Glycemic Thanksgiving Recipes, I know this is a time when making good choices can be a challenge. Personally I think it's okay to splurge a little on a holiday meal, because over the long haul healthy eating is all about balance. This long-time favorite recipe for American Greek Salad is something I first posted when I was a teacher about to go on summer vacation, but it's also a good choice when you need to balance out some heavier meals. I recommend this salad at my pick for Meatless Monday this week if you'd like to start the week with something that's tasty and fresh.

It's the addition of lettuce that makes this salad an American Greek Salad. In fact, when I went to Greece I discovered what I'd always called Greek Salad (with lettuce) didn't really exist there! Greek Salad in Greece (often called village salad) has cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, Kalamata olives, green pepper, and Feta with a dressing made from olive oil and vinegar or lemon juice and seasoned with a little dried oregano. I used to be somewhat unenthusiastic about the onion and green bell pepper, but the last few years I've realized that thin slivers of those two vegetables add a lot of flavor to a salad like this. You can add or subtract ingredients based on what you prefer, but don't leave out the handful of lettuce if you're going to call this American Greek Salad.

(You can find more meatless recipes by using the label Meatless Monday or checking Vegetarian Recipes in the recipe index. For Meatless Monday ideas from other bloggers, check Meatless Monday at BlogHer, where I write a weekly feature spotlighting one of the fabulous meatless recipes I find around the web.)

You can make authentic Greek Dressing if you like, but I usually use a small amount of purchased vinaigrette dressing that's kicked up a bit with lemon juice, caper juice, capers, and dried oregano. Make the dressing first so the flavors can blend.

Two ingredients you must not skip if you're making Greek Salad of any type are Feta cheese and Kalamata olives. Both of these are strongly flavored, so it doesn't take too much to add a lot of good Greek flavor.

I buy grape tomatoes and baby cucumbers year-round at Costco, so I always have them around to make this salad. Thinly slice the bell pepper and onions, and cut the tomatoes and cucumbers into bite-sized pieces.

For the lettuce I use about 1 head of Romaine for two salads. I tear up the salad and wash it in my salad spinner.

Instructions:
Whisk together the purchased vinaigrette, olive oil, lemon juice, caper juice, capers, and dried oregano and let the dressing stand while you prep other ingredients.

Break Romaine lettuce into bite sized pieces and wash well. (I use a salad spinner, but you can wash in a colander and dry with paper towels.) Cut up cucumbers and tomatoes into bite-sized pieces and thinly slice red onion and green pepper.

In large salad bowl toss together lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, and green peppers with about 3 tablespoons of dressing. Add crumbled Feta cheese and olives and toss again. Season to taste with salt and fresh ground black pepper and enjoy.

About Ingredients:
Personally I have a strong preference for sheeps milk Feta in a salad like this, although truthfully I never met a Feta cheese I didn't like. To me, the sheeps milk Feta is creamier and a little milder. Whatever Feta you buy, try to avoid the pre-crumbled type; it simply does not last in the refrigerator. If you're lucky enough to have a FoodSaver machine which vacuum packs food in plastic bags, it's perfect for sealing those big blocks of feta, which is something I always have in my fridge.

South Beach Suggestions:
This would be a great main dish salad for the South Beach Diet or any other Low-Glycemic eating plan, although if you're in the early phases of South Beach you might want to use the feta cheese a bit sparingly. I also like Blue Cheese Dressing on this salad, and I buy a famous brand of blue cheese dressing and mix it half and half with buttermilk to make it more South Beach Diet friendly.

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Kalyn - I had lots and lots of amazingly tasty Greek salad during my trip last week - sans lettuce, of course (though Santorini salad has lettuce:) Your blue cheese dressings sounds delicious - I might try that soon..Also - I realised that in Greece feta cheese is usually laid on top as a block, and not crumbled onto the salad, although most cookbooks say so. Go figure..

Oh, the front porch! I am green with envy! Our front deck is (a) completely saturated with rain and (b) prime staging ground for hordes of mosquitoes. I daren't pray for a drought, but it's my secret desire right now!!

To further confuse things, I ordered a "Greek" salad in a restaurant in Tampa FL, and what I got was a lettuce salad that had a scoop of potato salad in the middle, a piece of feta on top and some olives and pickled beets as well.

I love everything in your salad. I think I could eat this every day in summer when the veggies come out of the garden. I ate my first garden cucumber tonight--just sliced in rice vinegar and salt. Delicious. Even through a few cherry tomatoes in, too. I love summer.

You are right that in most parts of Greece they make the salad the way you describe it. In Cyprus we make the Greek salad or Horiatiki as we call it (village salad) with lettuce, fresh coriander and all the other ingredients of the Greek salad.The addition of a blue cheese salad sounds good. I shall give it a try. I would add (this is my personal opinion) what makes a Greek salad is Greek olive oil, Greek oregano, kalamata olives, onion and the combination of certain vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, coriander, etc.

LOL - Americans and South Africans have more in common that we ever thought! The absolute standard salad on any South African restaurant menu is this exact "Greek" salad. I thought it was a worldwide thing, got to England and discovered it certainly isn't! When I go home for holidays I always gorge on this salad, and grilled haloumi salad (another South African favourite that doesn't really feature here in the UK).

And can I just say how jealous I am of your summer vacation?? It's the thing I miss most about being a lecturer...

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